Chaz Coleman dismissed by Tennessee as Vols' massive transfer bet goes bust
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Chaz Coleman was dismissed from Tennessee's football program after arriving as a Penn State transfer edge rusher, ending what sources called one of the more complicated NIL-era roster situations in college football.
- Tennessee reportedly invested approximately $2 million in Coleman — perhaps the Vols' biggest transfer-portal expenditure of the offseason — beating out Ohio State and LSU for his signature with the help of new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles, Coleman's former Penn State DC.
- Coleman missed most of Tennessee's spring practice and the spring game; sources described lingering vertigo symptoms tied to a head injury at Penn State, along with personal strain and homesickness, while one Tennessee source said, "The kid is not a bad kid. He's just got personal issues right now."
- Despite just one sack at Penn State in 2025, Coleman ranked No. 7 on the 247Sports Big Board for the 2026 transfer cycle with a 90.3 PFF pass-rush grade and three years of eligibility, and was one of four former Nittany Lions defensive players to sign with Tennessee.
- Josh Heupel addressed Coleman's status after the spring game, saying Coleman needed to "handle that and go through that process" away from the field — two months before the separation became final.
- Coleman's exit follows a string of high-profile Tennessee departures: Nico Iamaleava left in May 2025 amid an NIL dispute and ended up at UCLA via a quarterback swap, while Boo Carter departed midseason after a locker room altercation and transferred to Colorado.
- Tennessee's win total was set at 7.5 earlier in the offseason, and CBS Sports' Brad Crawford had picked the Vols to go 8-4 before Coleman's dismissal tightened the margin on a defense already replacing its coordinator.
Why it matters: Tennessee now enters the season without the defensive headliner its transfer class was built around, following the same pattern that produced the Iamaleava and Carter exits. With a 7.5 win total and an 8-4 preseason projection already on the line, Heupel and first-year coordinator Jim Knowles have less margin to absorb another high-profile roster loss in a season the program was already asking its defense to carry.
Ask SkimNews
